Trap Rigging a Big Hammer has become the most effective I have found to catch trout, never before have I been so amazed at a trout fishing lure. I used to troll for trout all of the time when I was younger and I used the typical minnow-type crankbaits and spoons, but ever since I started trolling Big Hammers™ I will never go back to another bait. The greatest thing about them is that if a trout hits it and misses the hook more often than not they seem to come back for it. These baits are really amazing and if you haven't tried them for trout you should.

First off you'll need to get some Gamakatsu Octopus hooks. I like red to give the bait and little bit more color and give the fish something to focus on. Then pick up some braided line. I use Power Pro in 50 lb. test, but that might be a little bit of over kill so anything that size or smaller will be fine. If you go with heavier line than that you might have some trouble getting the line through the hook eye. And then the most important of all, get yourself a 3 inch Big Hammer and a ¼ Hammer Head™ with a 1/0 hook. So far from what I have heard from people is that every color works, but to name a few, Dorado, Pepper Trout, Steve's Shad, Prizm Shad, Margarita, and Rainbow Trout have been some good producers.

First start off buy tying a Palomar knot around the hook shank. Make sure to chinch the knot down tight because braid has a tendency to slip. You may even want to finish the knot off with a dab of "super" type glue.

Then you are going to want to cut off about 4.5 to 5 inches of line, basically enough line so that you can tie a Palomar knot to the Octopus hook.

The next step is to tie your hook on. Before you cinch down the knot on the Octopus hook you need to look to see where the knot is going to cinch down so that you make sure that you have enough line for the Octopus hook to come out of the back of the bait. It's okay if when you chinch the hook down if there is a little too much line, but make sure you have enough so that the hook can come out of the tail of the bait.

A good way you can tell if you have enough line is to make sure when you pull the braid tight that the eye of the Octopus hook is at the end of the tail like this:

Next step is to hide the braid with in the bait. Thread the hook in the back of the bait as if you were threading a swimbait on. Push the hook in as far as you can make it go and pop it out when you can't get it to go any further.

You don't want to get it all the way to the tail because that is impossible. Just try and get it half way there and then do the same thing again. This time though, you want to make sure you pop the hook out of the tail of the bait, once you do that pull the line tight and you are ready to fish. Just tie your swimbait up to some 8 lb. Mono, or even some lead core and go stick some fish.

As always there is more than one way to skin a cat, and there on tons of variations on how to trap rig a swimbait. This is the easiest way that I have found. There really isn't a wrong way to do it. All that matters is that your bait swims. So there you have it now go out there and catch a big one!

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